Emiline is a frustrated adjunct writing professor--her long-term relationship is stagnant, as are her attempts to write fiction of her own. So she's reluctant when her roommate begs her to read All the Roads Between, the hottest debut novel of the year. But as Emi begins to read, she is shocked to discover that the novel is about her. It details the dark and sordid secrets of her childhood and her star-crossed teenage romance, which means that author "J. Colby" must be none other than Emiline's lost love, Jason.
Feeling betrayed that Jase would write their story and dare to change the ending, Emiline sets out to find him. What she discovers along the way will not only have reverberations for Emi, but also for everyone who loves her.
Renée Carlino (Before We Were Strangers, Nowhere but Here) has crafted a completely bewitching--though predictable--love story in Swear on This Life. Almost everyone can reminisce about romances past, but Emi's appalling childhood, and the way that her relationship with Jase ended, make hers particularly poignant. As she reads All the Roads Between, Emi begins to find closure for many of the feelings she's bottled up for years.
Told in alternating chapters between the slightly fictionalized All the Roads Between and Emi's present day, Swear on This Life is mesmerizing. A story of love and redemption, Renée Carlino's novel is a perfect reason for staying up too late to read. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm